The fabrication of integrated circuits (IC) in the semiconductor industry typically employs plasma to create and assist surface chemistry within a plasma reactor necessary to remove material from and deposit material to a substrate. In general, plasma is formed with the plasma reactor under vacuum conditions by heating electrons to energies sufficient to sustain ionizing collisions with a supplied process gas. Moreover, the heated electrons can have energy sufficient to sustain dissociative collisions and, therefore, a specific set of gasses under predetermined conditions (e.g. chamber pressure, gas flow rate, etc.) are chosen to produce a population of charged species and chemically reactive species suitable to the particular process being performed within the chamber (e.g. etching processes where materials are removed from the substrate or deposition where materials are added to the substrate).
Although the formation of a population of charged species (ions, etc.) and chemically reactive species is necessary for performing the function of the plasma processing system (i.e. material etch, material deposition, etc.) at the substrate surface, other component surfaces on the interior of the plasma processing chamber are exposed to the physically and chemically active plasma and, in time, can erode or become coated with deposits. The erosion or coating of exposed components in the plasma processing system can lead to a gradual degradation of the plasma processing performance and ultimately to complete failure of the system.
Various parts of a plasma processing system consist of consumable or replaceable components that are fabricated from silicon, quartz, alumina, carbon, or silicon carbide, for example. Examples of consumable system components include electrodes, shields, rings, baffles and liners. The consumable nature of the replaceable components can require frequent maintenance of the plasma processing system. This frequent maintenance can produce costs associated with plasma processing down-time and new plasma processing chamber components, which can be excessive.
Consumable parts are commonly cleaned or replaced after detrimental processing conditions or process results are observed. The adverse processing conditions can include plasma arcing, particle formation, variations in substrate etch rate, etch selectivity and etch uniformity. Alternatively, consumable parts can be cleaned or replaced according to a predetermined maintenance schedule that can, for example, be based on the number of plasma operating hours. These methods can result in overdue or premature replacement of consumable system components.